Amazing Hubble Space Images

These stunning images from the Hubble Space Telescope are taken from the April 2015 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7653, which is an emission nebula located 11 000 light-years away

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The spacecraft is on its way to an asteroid

“Hamal, the brightest star in Aries, is located in the upper right corner of the image.

"The Earth-Moon system is centred in the middle of five stars comprising the head of Cetus the Whale."

The OSIRIS-Rex mission took off from Florida in September, 2016, and is set to reach an asteroid dubbed Bennu later in 2018.

The spacecraft will collect samples from the space rock which is 500 metres in length and could pave the way for an asteroid mining industry, with some meteorites worth trillions of pounds because of their minerals which are scarce on Earth such as platinum.

The mission will also give vital information on how to deflect asteroids from their collision course with Earth.

NASA fears that the asteroid, which has the potential to wipe out a country on Earth, could hit our planet within the next 200 years, with the next close flyby in 2135.